by Harriet Wistrich
On 6 March 2025, ITV will broadcast the first of a three-part documentary about how a number of undercover police officers sent to infiltrate political protest movements, used their fake identities to form long term intimate sexual relationships with women involved in the movements they were spying on.
The story in the documentary is told by five women who each suffered significant trauma as a consequence of becoming the unwitting victims of this scandalous undercover police activity. They came together to form a group of eight who worked together to expose one of the biggest scandals in the history of British policing. I had the privilege of being their lawyer and in part three of the documentary I contribute to the episode which documents how they took legal action to hold the police to account.
I have also written about this extraordinary case in my book, ‘Sister in Law’, which comes out in paperback tomorrow. Below, we reproduce two extracts from chapter six, which sets out how we fought that historic legal battle.
The chapter, like the documentary, starts by telling some of the stories of the women who each separately discovered how the man with whom they had formed a loving and long-term relationship suddenly vanished from their lives. It describes the painstaking detective work they undertook that led them to the shocking revelation that their lover - who had posed as a social justice activist, was actually a police officer married and with kids. I describe how the fears they raised with friends or family were largely met with scepticism at the idea that police in this country would go to such lengths to gather intelligence. It was only when one of the stories finally received media attention, that the women were able to come together to support each other and explore avenues for redress. Helen Steel, one of the women, who had previously fought a David and Goliath legal battle against the fast-food chain McDonalds, ushered them towards the civil liberties firm I used to work with, Birnberg Peirce solicitors. I write:
“By the end of June [2011], we had five women who had been unwittingly involved with four different Undercover Police officers. While they were at different points in their own journeys, they’d had many eerily similar experiences and all had believed themselves to be in serious relationships. It was an extraordinary situation. The impact on them all had been life- changing. But how could we use the law to bring these men to justice?
“I thought it would be useful for the women to meet to share their stories with each other and for us to begin to consider possible legal remedies. Who were they most angry with? Their deceitful, manipulative exes, or the institution behind them that had facilitated, possibly encouraged, their actions? Did what had happened to them amount to rape? Were they targeted as individuals, or just used as a convenient cover for the officers to establish credibility among activists? What did they most want from a potential legal action?
“The five women, plus Rosa’s baby, crowded into the small meeting room at our office, where we’d provided food, along with Gareth, Sheila, my casework assistant, and me. These were an intense few hours. The women discovered just how much they had in common and cried, laughed and ate together. They were united in the view that the Met Police must be held to account and that they did not want this to happen to anyone else; that they needed to know why they had been targeted and how many of their intimate moments and communications had been shared with other police officers. There were some differences of opinion about the extent to which individual officers were culpable but, by the end of the meeting, everyone was agreed that we would explore the legal avenues jointly. For years they had suffered in isolation, and now they wanted to proceed with the support of each other.”
The chapter then goes on to describe how, with the advice of barristers, we explored the most effective legal mechanism for holding the police accountable. There were many barriers to taking such legal action, from the novelty of the issues raised in their cases, to the lack of funding and costs protection. My initial expectation was that given the shameful evidence that had emerged in the public domain and the statements issued initially by police chiefs, this would be a case that the police would wish to settle quickly. However, instead we were met by unexpectedly obstructive police tactics geared towards hiding the truth and blocking any form of justice.
My clients were alarmed and confused by the police approach to our threatened litigation:
“I convened meetings, for those able to make it, where they would share insights from their personal experiences and discuss strategy. They were incredibly supportive of each other and worked hard to iron out political differences. Anyone who has been involved in feminist and left- wing politics will know that uniting anarchist feminists with trade union socialists is no mean feat. Most of the women held strong political opinions and were used to arguing these out in meetings. Some shouted louder than others. Variations in approaches to resolving conflict were also challenging, with some believing that no decision could be made unless it had been reached by consensus, whereas others found the lengthy going round in circles this entailed frustrating. But, through it all, there was an amazing camaraderie and commonality of purpose forged by some pretty unique shared experiences.
“So, if I felt on occasion as though I had metamorphosed from solicitor into a cross between a convenor of a consciousness-raising group and the chair of a rowdy political meeting, my overriding sense was one of great privilege to be part of this tight band of brave women who were essentially laying bare the dark underbelly of police espionage methods and formulating a principled strategy for holding those at the top accountable for tactics which, all were agreed, amounted to institutionalised sexism.”
Ultimately the process of working so closely together helped us develop a strategy that combined legal action, with publicity through the media and parliament, to exert pressure on the police to recognise their responsibility for the serious harm caused by these officers’ conduct. In due course we achieved a settlement incorporating a fulsome public apology. The battle by these women for truth and justice however continues as the evidence in these cases is now the subject of the Undercover Police Inquiry, now in its tenth year.
If you are interested to know more, the forthcoming documentary is both a gripping and accessible account.
The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed airs on 6 March at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV - watch here
Based on the book Deep Deception
To find out more about Harriet Wistrich’s book ‘Sister in Law’, longlisted for the women’s prize for non-fiction, out in paperback on 6 March, click here